Monday, May 9, 2005

Cisco Systems reported quarterly sales of $6.2 billion, compared with $5.6 billion for the third quarter of fiscal 2004, an increase of 10.1 percent, and compared with $6.1 billion for the second quarter of fiscal 2005, an increase of 2.1 percent. Net income (GAAP) was $1.4 billion or $0.21 per share, compared with $1.2 billion or $0.17 per share for the third quarter of fiscal 2004, and compared with $1.4 billion or $0.21 per share for the second quarter of fiscal 2005.

Cisco noted sequential growth of over 20% in the service provider market segment. On a year-over-year basis, sales to U.S. service providers grew 40%. IP telephony order increased 15% sequentially and over 35% y/y. Linksys shipped 980,000 VoIP phone adapters during the quarter.

"Today's results are a clear indication that our integrated technology strategy is working--customers are realizing the benefits of an intelligent network architecture," said John Chambers, president and CEO, Cisco Systems.

The sales breakdown by product category was:

Routers, $1.44 billion, up 13% year-over-year

Switches, $2.42 billion, up 2%

Advanced Technologies, $1.13 billion, up 29%

Other $196 million, down 5%

Services, $998 million, up 12%

The sales breakdown by geography was:

U.S. -- 46%

EMEA -- 32%

Asia/Pac -- 10%

Japan -- 6%

Americas Int. -- 6%

The gross margin was 66.8%, compared with 68.8% a year ago.

Cisco currently holds $16.1 billion in cash and investments.

Approximately $2.0 billion of its own stock was repurchased in the quarter.

Employee headcount stands at 37,050 compared with 34,307 a year ago.

As for guidance, Cisco believes it can sustain annual growth in the 10% to 15% range. http://www.cisco.com